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Via , via , Battlestar Galactica (best)show(ontelevision)runner Ron Moore talks about what's at stake in the writer's strike: "Fundamentally this is about the internet, and this is about whether writers get paid for material that is made for the internet or if they're paid for material that is broadcast on the internet that was developed for TV or movies...I had a situation last year on Battlestar Galactica where we were asked by Universal to do webisodes [Note: Moore is referring to The Resistance webisodes which ran before Season 3 premiered], which at that point were very new and 'Oooh, webisodes! What does that mean?' It was all very new stuff. And it was very eye opening, because the studio's position was 'Oh, we're not going to pay anybody to do this. You have to do this, because you work on the show. And we're not going to pay you to write it. We're not going to pay the director, and we're not going to pay the actors.' At which point we said 'No thanks, we won't do it.'" "We...

Since 9/11, classical historian Victor Davis Hanson has established himself as one of the preeminent apologists for the Bush Doctrine, presenting George W. Bush as a combination of Achilles , Marcus Aurelius , and Jesus Christ , and showing that every aspect of modern life deserves its own analogy to the Peloponnesian War. Hanson has demonstrated that there are few historical events which he cannot willfully misconstrue in defense of his liege, no political disagreement which he cannot interpret as a test of manliness, and no blindingly obvious administration cock-up that he cannot weave into a narrative of ultimate victory. So, in the same spirit in which the prize for Best Essay goes to the kid who most praises the school, yesterday Hanson received a National Humanities Medal . President Bush, at the presentation ceremony: "He has cultivated the fields of history and brought forth an abundant harvest of wisdom for our times." Right. D of LGM , winner of the 2006 Victor Davis Hanson...

Via TPM , the Alberto R. Gonzales Legal Expense Trust : "The establishment of a legal defense fund for the nation's former chief law enforcement officer underscores the potential peril confronting Gonzales, who is one of a handful of attorneys general to face potential criminal charges for actions taken in office. David G. Leitch, a Gonzales friend and general counsel at the Ford Motor Co., wrote in an e-mail solicitation to potential contributors last month that Gonzales is "innocent of any wrongdoing" but does not have the means to pay for his legal defense after a career spent mostly in public service [...] The contribution form distributed by Leitch asks that donations be sent to a post office box in Alexandria. Leitch said in an e-mail yesterday that the "fund was formed by friends and colleagues of Judge Gonzales to help him defray the cost of legal representation in his continuing cooperation with various inquiries concerning matters that occurred during his tenure as attorney...

"The Palestinians need to become really conscious of and sensitive to the horror of the Holocaust. ...We must understand the importance and significance of the Holocaust to the Jews, while insisting that the Jews understand the tragedy of Palestine for the Palestinians." - Rev. Canon Naim Ateek , founder of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem * * * Naim Ateek had just turned 11 when forces of the Haganah, the pre-Israel Zionist paramilitary organization, occupied his village of Beisan in Palestine. Days later, the villagers were informed that they were to be "evacuated," forcibly moved off land that Palestine's Jewish minority now claimed for its own state. Ordered to gather in the village center, the Ateeks took what they could carry, and joined the other frightened families, all clutching heirlooms, photographs, jewelry, and awaiting an uncertain future, away from the homes in and lands on which their families had lived for generations. It is perhaps...

Last night, NOVA premiered a documentary on the Dover, PA intelligent design trial of 2005. It should be up on the web soon, I'm looking forward to watching it, having played a small part myself in the controversy over ID. Greg Anrig has some comments : "In watching the documentary, I was struck by the parallels between the Dover story and movement conservatism generally. The selling of “intelligent design,” and the idea itself, has much in common with Social Security privatization, supply-side economics, the invasion of Iraq, school vouchers, and other half-baked causes that the right has relentlessly been pushing in recent decades. [...] Basically, the Discovery Institute’s Center was in the business of marketing—not research. It had a product to sell – intelligent design -- and was focused on doing whatever it could to sell that idea. Even the name of the idea itself was changed from creationism to make it more palatable. Much like the unobjectionable moniker “Center for Renewal of...